Tardy as always...

And on par with my consistent tardiness, Easter Pictures:

We spent Easter weekend at the Eastern Shore with Oma, Ben's Mama. Esther got to hang out with Oma's menagerie of fish and finches and Ben and I got a nice baby-break/date in to boot.
On our date we bought new sun glasses for the whole family...
This is our Easter morning dog pile on the sofa.
Check out the sticks in her hands...
This is her hot pink Easter dress... i don't know if i'm becoming more girlie in my old age or what but pink doesn't seem to bother me much these days... huh...
This bunny was a gift from Ben's Aunt Beth and quickly became inseparable from E.

Under the fish table is a mirror which Esther liked to look into while singing
Esther would only hunt for the Easter eggs after she watched me open one up and put rocks and sticks in it. Every time we go outside be it for 30 seconds or a few hours, Esther picks up an odd assortment of rocks and sticks which she MUST carry around in her hands and will only put down when it's time to go back inside...

Wicked Wednesday Dinner!

More on Art Night

So Art Night is a gathering of folks one night a month where we share art that we've all done around a certain theme (which is picked out of a hat at each Art Night).

So go to the Art Night link and check out the Art Night blog.

You can see a crappy essay that i wrote. Whooo hooo!

You can also, hopefully, get in on it too. Look forward to seeing some of you at the next Art Night.

A return of the Jedi... i mean Jones

It occurs to me that i used to write more and post pictures less. Not that one is better than the other. I, myself, being of a more visually attracted person enjoy pictures, they tend to send a truer message about my life...
But ultimately, i do miss writing and to be completely honest about my narcissism, it's nice to have a record of what i was feeling this time last year.

March, to steal from a friend of mine, brings the wind and the wind makes me (like aurora) crazy. Not to mention the weather being unable to make up it's mind. "Oh i'm March Weather, i can't decide if i'm all happy and sunny and beautiful and warm, or a cold hearted bitch!" yeesh.

So i'm working hard on trying not to be too crazy and on trying to put together a life for myself. When we had Esther we kind of dropped everything and holed up with her, communing as a family and all getting to know each other and love each other, and catch up on sleep. I think the "catching up on sleep" thing is a perpetual side effect of being a parent of any age children. And now that Esther is older (17 months next week to be exact) it's time we had some more hobbies other than bickering, cooking lavish meals and aimlessly wandering the woods around the house.

Friday March 7th was "Art Night" (i'll post more about this when i get the link). I wrote the first essay i've written since Esther was born and read it to a group of people whom i do not know particularly well. Needless to say, it was horrifying but mostly consequence-less (aside from the headache i had the next day from drinking far too much wine, which i had hoped would stop the stage fright). All ramifications aside, i'm looking forward to our next "Art Night"...

And now in attempt to keep this short so as not to bore all 2 of my readers, I will leave you with one final question: what the crap? Easter is far too early this year...

New Cousin!!

I have a new First Cousin Once Removed!

Welcome to the world Ruby Maude Toole-Jardeleza.

Well done! Nick and Julie.

or if i were Stephen "goodonya", (not Ruby's Uncle Stephen, but Stephen, you know who you are Stephen)

Tattoo Pictures as Promised

Tattoos care of Aunt Heidi (not pictured). Tita Casey - pictured.

Power to the people...

Our power came back on late Monday afternoon. We're all showered, shaved, laundered, and media soaked. We're also a little better prepared for the next time it happens (because our power goes out for at least 4 hours, at least once a month).

Meanwhile, a list of fun things to do when the power goes out:
-tattoo the baby (pictures to follow)
-play cards for coins you can't see
-play hide the baby in the dirty laundry
-cook all the food in your fridge so it won't go bad
-eat all said cooked food
-feel like a fat-ass after eating all food

At first it was fun.

A big, crazy storm blew through on Saturday afternoon and knocked trees down all over. Including a few that happened to be standing sentinel above the power lines up the road. Needless to say, they abandoned their posts, turned on their charges and took them out, blocking the road and creating havoc all over the place.

We've been without power/water for 42 hours now. Last i saw, no one was even attempting to rectify the situation. We've been hauling water from the spring, using the outhouse, running the freezers off the generator (that's where we keep all our meat for the year from hunting -- since it's the only meat we eat), playing Uno by oil lamp light, and begging our relatives to let us shower at their house. It was all fine and good for the first 36 hours but i'm getting a bit tired of it, and i didn't do the laundry when i had a chance Saturday morning and it is now breeding and beginning to take over the bathroom and a corner of our bedroom. Does anyone have an old ringer washer they wanna loan us?

Sheenanigans

When Esther is old enough, do you think she will protest to having her entire baby album online for all to see?

This is her kissie face. She hasn't quite learned to pucker so she sticks her lower lip out.

mmm mmm. Baby-licious
This is my husband looking like a convict, and me looking resigned to the fact that my husband is a convict.
I think that this is turned sideways and she's actually standing on her head on Ben's chest, but i like it better this way cause it looks like shes punching and head butting him at the same time.
Please divert your eyes away from the low neckline (not that there's much to see there) and instead marvel at my amazingly huge and crooked teeth.
This is her thinking face.

being attacked by her mother

and being squashed by her mother
no wonder she has nightmares...
A very real family photo...
Eating grapes..

Spitting out the grapes...
And her beloved "Mimi" which Kirstin (HI WEST!!) made for her. She was calling it "Lamby" but Ben and I thought she was saying Mimi and we started calling it Mimi and so it is now Mimi.

Our Little Podling

This morning i gave Esther morningstar veggie sausage links for the first time. She takes a tentative bite, then goes "yum, yum... mmmm mmm. Deeelicious!" and proceeds to shove the whole sausage into her mouth.

A little later, i go to hit play on the remote for the CD player and she comes running over and goes "mama, ready, set, gooooo!" just as the music starts to play.






In other news: It's a bit premature, but i'm ready for spring.

And I keep vainly hoping that my dream job is going to walk in, grab me by the lapels and say "Let's go kid." And we'd be off to live in some wonderful land where i don't feel like hiding under the bed every morning before going to work.

i hate this time of year.

And Happy Valen-Times Day!

I know valentimes is for saps and people who believe in cliches... and well... i'm one of them.

One time i got my roommates presents for valentimes and also made them heart shaped pancakes. What can i say i love to tell people that i love them.

I made banana-apple muffins and an omelet for Ben this morning before i left for work.
On the front seat of my car this morning i found that Ben packed me a lunch. I'm not allowed to look in the bag until lunch time but something tells me it's full of brie!!

Christmas in February

Finally, the long awaited, long neglected christmas pic post:

Esther in a box and Esther in Boots

Oh, yeah... and Ben too.

Esther's New Shoes (for Sri Lanka)

Esther's brushes her 6 teeth.

Finally, a new post

One of Esther's favorite games is to take her shoes off her feet and put them on her hands. Then she will either crawl around on all fours and growl... or she will attempt to pick things up, in this case she just picked up her doll and threw it in the cardboard box. And this face obviously says, "And what is not normal about that, mom?"

It's been almost a month...

I'm sorry i haven't been posting. I've been extremely busy at work and at home...

Work is driving me so crazy right now that i actually broke out in hives on friday while working from home (which you would think would be less stressful) due to an extremely frustrating phone conference.

In other news, we have purchased our tickets to Sri Lanka. We're leaving end of May and getting back mid June. I'm so excited/nervous/anxious... everyone on the plane is going to hate us...

but maybe it'll be worth it when Esther sees the Elephants.

I promise to post something decent soon.